The Christmas Story

Thursday, December 22, 2011

This is adorable. That's all.





I love the baby wise man. And the sheep. :)

We are leaving to visit family bright and early tomorrow morning. Have a very Merry Christmas! Talk to you all in a few days!

Nursery Love.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Hello, friends!



Things have been looking a little "rounder" for me as of late and it's really gotten me thinking:

What in the heck am I going to do for this nursery?

 I've been a pinning machine on the good old Pinterest lately and thought I would share a few of my favorites.

There are not enough words to describe how obsessed I am with this nursery from The Painted Hive. Especially that crib color. It is PERFECT.





As you all know, I am a big fan of stripes and there's a pretty good chance that they'll either end up in the nursery, guest bedroom, or guest bathroom. I really love the thin, vertical lines in this one and the framed animal prints. When Bryan's parents moved, they gave us some vintage airplane prints that have hung in Bryan's bedroom pretty much his whole life. I think that they were originally his grandpa's, so I'm wanting hang them in the nursery in a similar fashion.





A great Sarah Richardson nursery. She is one of my absolute favorite designers. I really love the high chair rail that she did in this one.





Since wallpaper is officially "back", I've given a little bit of thought to putting it in the nursery. A tree print would be fun...





This color scheme is really great. Very soft with a pop of coral. And of course, I love the stripes. And the picture frame molding. Really, it's all great.





Surprise, surprise! More stripes. I just can't get away from them! I really love the storage underneath the crib instead of a bed skirt. Our nursery will be pretty small, so we'll need all the storage space we can get.






I know this one is too frilly for a boy, but I LOVE the overall feel of it. And the mirrored dresser....be still my heart.


Source: houzz.com via Katy on Pinterest



Oh, the book wall. I have loved this picture for several years now. Such a great idea and has so much visual interest. My only hesitation with doing something like this is the amount of bright colors it would bring into the room, and I'm not so sure I want that. I might save this one for his big boy room or play room, but I still love it!




I apologize for my obsession with stripes. This is getting a little ridiculous. Again, this one is too girly, but I love all of the pattern and texture!




Same goes for this one. Although I honestly didn't realize this was a nursery when I first saw it, I still think it's pretty. Maybe too grown up for a nursery, but the colors and overall feel of the room are great and very unique!




Last but not least is this cute little room. The bright pop of color in the dresser and that huge cut out "M" are to die for! Love, love.




So that's where my thoughts are at the moment as far as the nursery goes....really, they are kind of all over the place, but I guess that's what pregnancy brain does to you. (Did I mention that I found some of my clothes in my bathroom drawer this week? I didn't? Hmm....)

I also wanted to thank you all for your sweet comments and advice on decorating our little boy nursery a few posts ago! I have definitely taken your ideas to the drawing boards!

Have a great Monday!

Paint Colors and Christmas Card

Friday, December 16, 2011



Hello, blog friends!

Just wanted to drop in and share our Christmas Card for this year. I had a lot of fun designing it....maybe by this time next year I will have mustered up enough motivation to design even more holiday cards to fill my (currently empty) Etsy shop! Creativity just hasn't struck yet...sigh.


Also, I wanted to give a shout out to sweet Jena at Involving Color for featuring our home on her blog! She has added all of our rooms to her Paint Color Galleries and Room Galleries (which are SO fun to look through, by the way) so if you've ever wondered what colors are on our walls, just head over there!

Have a great weekend!

Christmas at Our Casa

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Lots of pictures today, friends. Hope you don't mind too much :).



As I've said before, we tried to make everything as natural and simple as possible this year. Hence, the wreath. I like it though! I made the bow real quick with some burlap ribbon that one of my wonderful and crafty work friend surprised me with when I couldn't find it anywhere in town.




Ornaments hung from the window in the kitchen with a mixture of fresh and fake greenery along the window sill.


Here's a little snapshot of our kitchen that has yet to be featured on the blog. You get the gist, right?






I had some extra ornaments so I combined them with a few fillers and spanish moss that I had lying around the house. Add to that a white bowl and cake stand and you have a cute little decoration!


Nothing much in the dining room. Just some greenery in the light fixture (that I would really like to replace this year....please!), and a pretty poinsettia on a cake plate. In a trashcan. Yes, that "vase" is actually a trashcan that was on sale at TJ Maxx (where else?).




 


And of course, the mantel, which I posted about with a lot more pictures here.





Little vignette in the corner of the living room.


I apologize for the terrible lighting in this picture. It was an overcast/sunny day and I just couldn't get the settings on the camera to work with it.....but here is our living room in all of its Christmas-y glory.








Oh the tree. I didn't put that many pictures of it in this post, but that's mostly because there are about 387 in my last post that you can look at here.











And on to our bedroom. Simple. I love it. Some ornaments in a vase, greenery, and another pretty poinsettia. In another trashcan. Whoops :).





So that's it for our house in 2011! Hope you enjoyed the tour :). I had a lot of fun decorating and am very excited to look at all of the homes decked out for the holidays around blog world. Thanks for reading!

Holiday

Oh Christmas Tree

Monday, December 12, 2011

Get ready for picture overload. Apologies in advance :).



Today is the day that I get to share one of my most favorite things in the world...our one and only Christmas Tree!





Normally, I only take pictures for the blog during the day since they tend to look nicer and brighter....but I just HAD to make an exception for the tree. Oh, the lights. How I love thee.




I believe in a well stocked tree. Lots of glitter, lots of frill, but with a ton of natural elements as well.


I decided to stick random things from around the house in the branches this year, and I have to say....I'm never going back. More green apples to match the fireplace, twigs that are normally in a vase in the living room, and feathers that I found at Paul Michael's.




I also used some apple green ribbon. Oh and the polka dots. I just could resist them. (I'm a sucker for polka dots....they were even on my wedding dress!)


My mom taught me how to make one of her legendary bows last year. This skill has come in quite handy.




Can't wait to see everyone else's trees! I will be posting the rest of our decorations on Thursday!



Unskinny Boppy

Babay Babay Babaaaaay Ooooh

Friday, December 9, 2011

That was my best attempt at typing a Justin Beiber song. Sorry if it wasn't very good.

Well, I've been bitten by the baby gear bug. My sister in law told me about this site called Zulily that's basically like Groupon but for baby stuff. (All of you current moms are probably rolling your eyes since this is "old news" but I was pretty excited about it.) Anyways, I became a member two days ago and have already bought three things. Oh. Oops. That's bad.

One of these three things is a diaper bag. Big purchase. Important purchase. Yeah yeah yeah yeah I am so so so excited about it! Like enough to repeat words multiple times. I have been hunting for diaper bags for quite some time....like maybe even before I was pregnant (hangs head in shame). One of my favorite brands is Timi and Leslie....and what do you know? They had their bags on sale the other day! Holla.

Here's what I ended up getting:


It's the Marilyn bag in Cloud Blue. Niiiiice.

It even looks good on a stroller.



I also made a run to TJ Maxx this week to see if they had anything that could potentially go in baby boy's nursery. Ya'll....I don't know what I'm going to do in this room. I honestly have no clue and I suspect that it will take a few mental breakdowns before I figure out what it should look like.

Sidenote: My mother always says that there's a fine line between creativity and insanity. I have found this to be very true throughout my life.

Anyway....as I wandered aimlessly through the overstuffed aisles....I came across THIS:


....and bought it. Along with a ceramic apple. We'll see where that ends up.

The table/chest/nightstand is made of a really manly barn board but is still pretty with the distressed mirrors and lines. At least I'm telling myself it's manly....poor little boy. He might have the prettiest bedroom in his playgroup.

I've learned something about myself since we've found out it's a boy: I'm terrible at buying boy-ish things. Terrible. Last week I was trying to get my grandfather-in-law, mother-in-law, and husband to admit that some types of floral fabrics can be manly. Like blue floral fabrics. They all said no. I'm still a little bitter about it.

I grew up in a family of girls and had a dad who could care less about the fact that he wore the same t-shirt three days in a row (and a husband who thinks pretty much the same way). I know nothing about what is stylish for a boy. I know that most of them like blue. That's it. This will truly be a learning experience.

So...for those with little boys; what do you think is stylish but still "manly" enough for a boys nursery?

Talk to you all later!